Inhabited initial Q on a bifolium from Saint Augustine's City of God, in Latin, DECORATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM

Inhabited initial Q on a bifolium from Saint Augustine's City of God, in Latin, DECORATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM
[Germany, ?Westphalia, c.1300]
256 x 139mm. 30 lines in two columns, prickings in outer margins, rubric in red, initials touched red, scribal corrections; the large penwork initial in red and brown with foliate infill, the extension a dragon's body with human head, opening the prologue to Book V, 'Quoniam constat omnium rerum'; the text on what was originally the facing recto (now folded in reverse) is from chapter v of Book V, indicating that the bifolium was not the centrefold of the gathering (light staining below initial, remnants of previous mount in lower margin and at inner corners). Provenance: Ifan Kyrle Fletcher, London (label on mount).
A handsome bifolium with an appealing initial from a large folio copy of De Civitate Dei, the great vindication of Christianity against pagan critics. St Augustine of Hippo (354-430) was perhaps the most influential of the four Fathers of the Latin church, whose works remained fundamental to Christian teaching and doctrine throughout the Middle Ages.